The Sound of Mela
Many thanks to those who voted in my "Name the Kala U Bass" questionaire which ended today. The beautiful Hawaiian name Mela (which means Song) won with 50% of the votes. This is doubly great because that was my favored choice as well. BTW, Kani, meaning Sound, came in a close second so I may have to call it Song Sound, which is somewhat appropriate for such a classy little music maker.
In other music news, I discovered yesterday, while reading a bass forum on the net about Ampeg B12N fliptop amplifiers, that the vintage boomer of that very type my parents gave me for my 16th birthday in 1963, is a no-kidding electrocution waiting to happen. It seems that, since it was manufactured way back when grounded outlets were not the norm that they are today, the vintage two-pronged power chord my B12N sports has no way of grounding the power that might surge through the unsuspecting player if he, she, or me were to touch a microphone or any AC powered device plugged into a different amplifier.
That would be a rude awakening indeed, and maybe The Big Kahuna of All Rude Awakenings..
So, today I loaded my beloved B12N into Big Red, the Jeep, and hauled it off to Asheville's Guitar Mama Store for a sorely needed upgrade to a grounded power plug. Good thinking, don't you think?
When I play bass, I want the sparks to fly, but not from my ears.
I remember more than once touching a microphone when something wasn't plugged in correctly and getting a nasty dose of wattage to the lips! Ooooh. Bare feet didn't work well either!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Bob. Shockingly sad but true. I've heard of people actually dying from such a mishap. I'd prefer a more sedate manner of shuffling this mortal coil than a blue flash and a puff of smoke.
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